{"id":1229,"date":"2010-08-17T15:30:34","date_gmt":"2010-08-17T15:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=667"},"modified":"2017-08-26T15:26:29","modified_gmt":"2017-08-26T19:26:29","slug":"cutting-and-burning-towards-a-new-family-in-jesus-jeff-taylor-aug-25-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/?p=1229","title":{"rendered":"Cutting And Burning Towards a New Family In Jesus – Jeff Taylor – Aug. 15, 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

View Archived Sermons <\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
Luke 12:49-56<\/font><\/strong><\/h5>\n<\/div>\n

<\/font>“I came to cast fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!<\/font>
<\/font>\u00a0I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/font>Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather the sword of division!\u00a0 From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/font>[to the crowds] “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain’; and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat’; and it happens.\u00a0 You hypocrites! You know how to forecast the future<\/strong> based on the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the signs of the present <\/strong>time?<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

Destroyed vineyards, fire, baptism, sword, signs of the times.\u00a0 Are you sure you want to hear this <\/font><\/p>\n

sermon?\u00a0 Am I sure I want to preach it?\u00a0 These themes don\u2019t rest easily on the modern ear.\u00a0 <\/font><\/p>\n

Where in this passage from Luke 12, is the \u201cpeace to all people\u201d Luke\u2019s angels sang at Jesus\u2019 <\/font><\/p>\n

birth?\u00a0 What is this vineyard imagery all about, and why have the editors of the lectionary paired it <\/font><\/p>\n

with Jesus\u2019 hard words about fire, baptism, and sword?\u00a0 Curious?<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

[praying:] May the God who lives and is somehow embodied in these words and the images they <\/font><\/p>\n

form, use them to change our lives.\u00a0 Amen<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Often the word of the Lord sounds like encouragement, love, assurance, direction.\u00a0 But <\/font><\/p>\n

sometimes, as this morning, we must agree with Jeremiah, \u201cIs not his word like a fffire<\/strong>?!\u201d\u00a0 We <\/font><\/p>\n

thought we were hearing a hard word from Jesus in Luke\u2019s gospel last <\/strong>week when Marilyn <\/font><\/p>\n

preached from the middle of chapter 12 where Jesus challenged us not to store treasure where it <\/font><\/p>\n

would just rot, but to put it \u201cin heaven.\u201d\u00a0 This may have been a hard saying of Jesus, though it did <\/font><\/p>\n

come with some word of comfort, \u201cDo not be afraid little flock, for it is the father\u2019s good pleasure <\/font><\/p>\n

to give you the kingdom.\u201d\u00a0 Oh, that sounds . . . . good \u2013 very nice indeed.<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In today\u2019s<\/strong> designated passage from Luke 12: 49- 56, we don\u2019t have any \u201cDo not be afraid\u201d or <\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cAren\u2019t you a cute little flock of adorable fluffy little lambs!\u201d Instead we<\/strong> get, fire, baptism, and <\/font><\/p>\n

sword.\u00a0 Now there are<\/strong> ways to try to get bits of this language to be softer, some scholars have <\/font><\/p>\n

done their best.\u00a0 But the overall tone in the whole passage is pretty rough.\u00a0 We could probably get<\/font> <\/p>\n

this fire<\/strong> that Jesus is about to cast upon the earth to be something other than judgment fire.\u00a0 <\/font><\/p>\n

After all, it\u2019s a fire Jesus is looking forward<\/strong> to; he wishes it was already kindled so he could just <\/font><\/p>\n

light it up.\u00a0 Is it possible to imagine the prince of peace <\/strong>so fervently wishing judgment<\/strong> fire on <\/font><\/p>\n

us? Besides, he might be tying this fire to baptism, possibly thinking of the John the Baptist\u2019s <\/font><\/p>\n

proclamation that Jesus would \u201cbaptize [us] with the Spirit and with fire.\u201d\u00a0 So can that<\/strong> fire which <\/font><\/p>\n

is part of the baptism Jesus gives us be judgment<\/strong>?\u00a0 Perhaps not . . . or perhaps.<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maybe this fire is the fire of the power<\/strong> of God, like the tongues of fire that will soon rest on the <\/font><\/p>\n

believers when they receive the power of the Spirit at Pentecost.\u00a0 Rather than being a destroying <\/font><\/p>\n

fire from without, maybe this is an enlivening fire from within.\u00a0 Perhaps it is internal combustion \u2013 <\/font><\/p>\n

like in that old camp song \u201cgive me gas for my Ford, keep me truckin\u2019 for the Lord.\u201d\u00a0 This may not <\/font><\/p>\n

be fire on<\/strong> us, but within<\/strong> us.\u00a0 Maybe.<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never been in a fire or been seriously burned, perhaps some of you have been close to that <\/font><\/p>\n

experience.\u00a0 Even an everyday burn from the stove or BBQ can throb mercilessly for hours; those <\/font><\/p>\n

with severe burns face a pain I don\u2019t care to even imagine.\u00a0 Fire is so unpredi
\nctable; it blows <\/font><\/p>\n

wherever the spirit\/wind takes it.\u00a0 It is so hard to know how to control it: put water on a wood <\/font><\/p>\n

fire, but never on a grease or oil fire.\u00a0 You can blow it out, but if the wind blows, it may only get <\/font><\/p>\n

stronger.\u00a0 It breathes the same oxygen we breathe; competing with us for the breath of life.<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I believe we were on one of our first trips to Yosemite National Park when I first saw firemen at <\/font><\/p>\n

the side of a road standing and watching<\/strong> a fire, perhaps the size of a football field, burning lazily <\/font><\/p>\n

away.\u00a0 The flames were low in the undergrowth and the firemen could easily have extinguished it, <\/font><\/p>\n

but they didn\u2019t. This was a controlled<\/strong> burn, meant to clear out some of the dryer underbrush in a <\/font><\/p>\n

manner they could control, so that when lightening came, there would not be so much dry kindling <\/font><\/p>\n

in the forest as to increase the danger of an uncontrollable fire.<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

When a section of forest had not burned for a long time, the forest service would sometimes set <\/font><\/p>\n

fire to the taller trees as well in order to clear the way for sunlight to reach the forest floor and <\/font><\/p>\n

nurture the new trees below that had been competing with their parents<\/strong> for sunlight.\u00a0 Fire is <\/font><\/p>\n

like the Vishnu and Shiva of the Hindu trinity: both destroyer and re-creator\/preserver.\u00a0 It is a <\/font><\/p>\n

magnificent renewer of life, quick to burn what has become old and dry, slow to burn what is <\/font><\/p>\n

young and fresh.<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

We have this very image earlier in Luke (3:17).\u00a0 Immediately before baptizing <\/strong>Jesus, John warns <\/font><\/p>\n

the crowd, \u201cHis winnowing-fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat <\/font><\/p>\n

into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.\u201d\u00a0 And immediately following <\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n

Jesus\u2019 baptism, Luke lists every member of Jesus\u2019 family tree from Joseph backwards to Adam.\u00a0 <\/font><\/p>\n

Baptism tied to the family tree<\/strong> \u2013 remember that; it will come up again later in this sermon.<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fire is used in the process of making metal <\/strong>objects stronger or of a higher quality by burning <\/font><\/p>\n

away the elements that are mixed in with the metal in nature, leaving just the purified metal <\/font><\/p>\n

behind.\u00a0 We have his image of the \u201crefiner\u2019s fire\u201d from the prophet Malachi, \u201cWho will be able to <\/font><\/p>\n

stand when He appears, for He is like a refiner\u2019s fire.\u201d<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

You know . . . I suppose I could be happy to be \u201cpurified\u201d very gradually and gently over time, <\/font><\/p>\n

rubbing off the rough edges though life experiences that are not too excruciating.\u00a0 But the refiner\u2019s <\/font><\/p>\n

fire goes deep <\/strong>into the substance, separating element from element.\u00a0 Like the two-edged sword <\/font><\/p>\n

that cuts deep, separating bone from sinew, breaking apart the body.\u00a0 So maybe this is not <\/font><\/p>\n

judgment <\/strong>fire exactly; but the fire of refinement burns<\/strong> none-the-less.<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

We must now take in Jesus\u2019 enigmatic reference to a baptism that he must undergo which he is <\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cconsumed\u201d or \u201cconstrained\u201d by until he does.\u00a0 Here scholars mostly agree that Jesus refers to his <\/font><\/p>\n

own impending death.\u00a0 Mark (10:38) puts this metaphor on Jesus lips as he tries to get James and <\/font><\/p>\n

John to understand what kind<\/strong> of kingdom they have just asked to be princes of: he asks them, <\/font><\/p>\n

“Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”\u00a0 Let\u2019s take it <\/font><\/p>\n

that, here in Luke, Jesus refers to his impending death as a baptism.\u00a0 So if we take the reference <\/font><\/p>\n

to fire and baptism together, as their literally parallelism might suggest we should, the fire would <\/font><\/p>\n

seem to have transformational power for \u201cthe earth\u201d and us earthlings just the anticipated <\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cbaptism\u201d does for Jesus \u2013 both will be searing experiences.<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

This morning\u2019s entire passage falls in a general section of Luke devoted to the idea of <\/font><\/p>\n

watchfulness \u2013 something is about to change and we need to be ready.\u00a0 In this chapter of Luke <\/font><\/p>\n

alone we hear Jesus warn us to \u201cwatch out\u201d four times.\u00a0 To the man in an inheritance dispute with <\/font><\/p>\n

his brother, he warns, watch out for greed!\u00a0 In the parable of the servants of the new brid
\negroom <\/font><\/p>\n

he warns them to watch out for the bridegroom about to return from the wedding banquet. In the <\/font><\/p>\n

parable of the freeman servant left in charge of the slave servants in his master\u2019s absence he <\/font><\/p>\n

warns, watch out, for the master of the house may return at any time.\u00a0 And then in this last part <\/font><\/p>\n

of Luke 12 we are listening to today he warns us to watch out for the signs or our times right in <\/font><\/p>\n

front of our eyes.<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jesus is about to enter Jerusalem and he knows that history is about to make a wrenching<\/strong> turn, <\/font><\/p>\n

in his life and the lives of those who have followed him there, and he wants to ready them.\u00a0 They <\/font><\/p>\n

expect a jubilant welcome (which they will get) and a glorious coronation which Jesus knows will <\/font><\/p>\n

be administered with a crown of thorns on the thrown of the cross.\u00a0 Watch out for the sudden <\/font><\/p>\n

turn, he tells his followers.\u00a0 Watch out.<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Perhaps we should also notice an important detail in Jesus\u2019 teaching and Luke\u2019s re-telling of it. <\/font><\/p>\n

Jesus concludes this section by criticizing his audience for accurately predicting the future<\/strong> <\/font><\/p>\n

weather,but failing to notice what is happening all around them in the present<\/strong> \u2013 for failing to\u00a0 <\/font><\/p>\n

read the\u201csigns of the time\u201d \u2013 for failing to be watchful.\u00a0 Now notice the images he uses to make <\/font><\/p>\n

this point: West winds bring rain<\/strong>, south winds bring scorching heat<\/strong>.\u00a0 Rain, heat.<\/strong>\u00a0 Now go back <\/font><\/p>\n

to the beginning of this section: Fire, baptism.\u00a0<\/strong> See it? Fire, baptism \u2013 rain, heat?\u00a0 Do you see it?\u00a0 <\/font><\/p>\n

Fire – heat; baptism – rain.\u00a0 Do you see how Jesus and\/or Luke rounds this unit out beginning and <\/font><\/p>\n

ending with fire, with an internal bookend of water?\u00a0 Put another way, it begins with fire and <\/font><\/p>\n

water, and ends with water and fire.\u00a0 Is there any doubt Jesus meant his hearers and Luke his <\/font><\/p>\n

readers to hear this section as a unit?\u00a0 Is there any doubt that all of it is about watchfulness?\u00a0 Is <\/font><\/p>\n

there any doubt that things are about to change!?<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, with the great benefit of hindsight, let us hear Jesus as Luke\u2019s audience does.\u00a0 They are <\/font><\/p>\n

Christians, mostly gentiles now, often persecuted by their Roman occupiers, unable to serve in <\/font><\/p>\n

good civil service and military jobs, either because of their refusal to take up arms or to bow to <\/font><\/p>\n

the emperor as deity, or for both reasons.\u00a0 They may well be living in the shadow of Emperor <\/font><\/p>\n

Titus\u2019s victory over the Jewish rebels in 70 CE in which he destroyed their temple.\u00a0 On a recent trip <\/font><\/p>\n

to Rome Doreen and I saw the huge marble arch erected to celebrate Titus\u2019 victory over the <\/font><\/p>\n

Jewish rebels.\u00a0 The engraved images feature a depiction of the Romans carting away the Menorah <\/font><\/p>\n

that was used, in part, to celebrate the Hanukah victory of the Maccabee brothers over <\/font><\/p>\n

Alexander\u2019s Greek<\/strong> imperial forces.\u00a0 It is as if the Romand emperor Titus wants to rub in the fact t<\/font><\/p>\n

hat the Greeks had only occupied the Jewish capitol for a while and then had been repelled, while <\/font><\/p>\n

Titus has utterly destroyed Jerusalem and their holy temple.<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In any case, Luke\u2019 readers may well live in time of great chaos as both Jews and Christians are <\/font><\/p>\n

exiled from Jerusalem and face revived persecution.\u00a0 There is division between Jews and Jewish <\/font><\/p>\n

Christian, between Jewish Christians and gentile Christians, between any of the above from <\/font><\/p>\n

Palestine and any of the above not from Palestine, between Rome and all of the above, and <\/font><\/p>\n

between believers and non-believers within the same family.\u00a0 Jesus has become a dividing line, <\/font><\/p>\n

the double edges sword that is spitting apart ancient allegiances based on common culture, <\/font><\/p>\n

government, religion, and family bonds, and is forming a new<\/strong> family tree with himself as the only <\/font><\/p>\n

vine<\/strong> to which Christians may be joined.\u00a0 All other allegiances to state, to tongue, to father and <\/font><\/p>\n

mother, must be made subordinate to the believer\u2019s allegiance to Jesus, and this is going to burn <\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n

and to cut<\/strong> Jesus\u2019 followers and already was burning and cutting Luke\u2019s listeners.<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

So
\nthe question for us is: who is our<\/strong> vine?\u00a0 Who is our <\/strong>primary family of allegiance?\u00a0 Is it the <\/font><\/p>\n

house of Taylor, the house of Martens, the house of Menno, or the house of Christ to which I bind <\/font><\/p>\n

myself that I might be transformed?<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

There will be no cataclysmic escape plan for Jesus\u2019 disciples, or those to whom Luke wrote 40 <\/font><\/p>\n

years later, or to we to whom they both now speak again.\u00a0 God has not yet chosen to make all <\/font><\/p>\n

things new.\u00a0 We will <\/strong>celebrate with God when everything and everyone is made \u201cvery good\u201d <\/font><\/p>\n

again.\u00a0 But till then, we\u2019ll continue to languish considerably at times, very much citizens of time <\/font><\/p>\n

and space, and our own failing flesh.\u00a0 But we have a guaranteed <\/strong>inheritance in the family<\/strong> of Jesus <\/font><\/p>\n

\u2013 a kingdom God is pleased<\/strong> to give us, if we make that kingdom home now as best we can, and <\/font><\/p>\n

only by the grace of God.<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

What will that look like at TUMC<\/strong>?\u00a0 There are a myriad of ways in which that transformation of <\/font><\/p>\n

family trees, that joining to the only true vine, is taking place \u2013 I couldn\u2019t name them all.\u00a0 But I am <\/font><\/p>\n

especially encouraged, even in the 11 years since I made TUMC my family, to see a tangible <\/font><\/p>\n

reordering of allegiances taking place, away from economic stability, social mobility, educational <\/font><\/p>\n

facility, organizational sterility, and familial tranquility, to a more dynamic engagement of the true <\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n

work of God to make his body of all<\/strong> the peoples of the earth.\u00a0 We see that in relationships of <\/font><\/p>\n

friendship, and we are beginning to see small, small signs of it in relationships of church <\/font><\/p>\n

leadership.\u00a0 But watch out \u2013 let us not grow weary. Christ calls us to a wider acceptance of<\/strong> and <\/font><\/p>\n

submission to<\/strong> one another not to put us to a test, or because he loves not those we already love <\/font><\/p>\n

and to whom we were joined at birth, but because we are still so damaged and un-whole without <\/font><\/p>\n

each other. And because, most<\/strong> important of all, HE <\/strong>remains damaged, HIS <\/strong>body remains <\/font><\/p>\n

un-whole as long as it<\/strong> is divided against itself because of our greater comfort with those most like <\/font><\/p>\n

us.\u00a0 Christ is<\/strong> building his church . . . but the church<\/strong> is also building Christ<\/strong>.<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

As we continue to realign ourselves to the true vine, enduring the burning and the cutting of that <\/font><\/p>\n

process, let us watch out.\u00a0 The kingdom of God is nearer than ever.<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

View Archived Sermons Luke 12:49-56 “I came to cast fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!\u00a0I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather the sword of division!\u00a0 From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-a-worship-audio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1229"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4001,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1229\/revisions\/4001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}